Outsider
by elisabethjj
Summary: Pre-mini: Zak should have known there would be complications dating his brother's best friend. A snapshot of the tangled web that was Kara, Lee and Zak, before it all went wrong.


**Title: Outsider  
Author: Elisabethjj  
Fandom: Battlestar Galactica (2003)  
Pairing/Characters: Kara/Zak, Lee/Gianne, implied Kara/Lee  
Rating: M for language  
Spoilers: Pre-mini, so none I hope  
**_**A/N: Yes, I have screwed with the time-line, yes, I have screwed with their ages and, no, I have no apology. I love baby!pilots and their pre-mini escapades. Also, in light of the final season, it's totally AU for how Kara, Lee and Zak met.** _

_Disclaimer: Obviously, I own none of these characters or any part of the BSG world. This is purely an expression of enjoying the show that others have created, and totally non-profit making. _

Zak could hear raised voices long before he opened the apartment door and almost caught a ceramic plate to the brow as it skimmed past him to crash into the wall just by the doorframe. Colourful pieces shattered and bounced on the hard wood floor, unnoticed by anyone except him amid the din of shrill recriminations and imaginative curse words heating the air.

"You are such an arrogant, insensitive, chauvinistic frakwit!" screeched his girlfriend, reaching for another of their new dishes to lob at his brother's head.

"Chauvinistic? For that to apply I'd actually have to think of you as a girl, which I don't! Which is the whole point. I was trying to help you out, be your friend, but oh no! You're Kara Thrace and you don't need anybody's help, do you?"

"Help me out? That's amazing, let's record the moment. Is Lee Adama actually thinking about someone other than himself for a change?"

Zak saw Lee's back stiffen and could imagine the anger darkening his face. Well, he could kind of imagine it. Lee was normally a fairly restrained kind of guy, but he had witnessed some truly horrifying rows between Lee and Lee's best friend in the three months Zak had been dating her.

"That's frakking rich! Oh, yes, because you're the poster girl for selfless deeds. Let me cast my mind back to the last time you did something that you didn't want to do…" Lee snarled.

Zak watched as Kara sucked in a deep breath and moved slowly and aggressively into Lee's personal space.

"How about last month when I went on your stupid road trip to listen to Tom-frakking-Zarek's gaggle-frak of political zealots and the Unity Party snoozers at that dumb-ass rally," she hissed. "That bored the shit out of me, seriously, I was _this_ close to reading one of the course textbooks you had in your car."

"That would be a frakking first, wouldn't it, you reading a course text? Besides, the way I remember it, you seemed to enjoy the free bar quite a lot. And didn't attendance at an extra-curricular political event count as thirty of your course credits for the mandatory politics requirement? You wouldn't have even passed the course without me! So, really, how was that selfless?"

Kara flared her nostrils and pushed Lee's chest with both hands. "Or how about last _week_, when I was bored out of my skull for three hours at that frakking dance recital just so you could get into the ice-princess' panties…"

"Oh, Kara," Lee smirked in an unpleasant fashion, walking backwards with his palms open in a mocking gesture. "I know you find this a difficult concept, but not everyone's panties are as constantly accessible as yours. Some girls actually like to be treated in a ladylike manner, you know, rather than dropping them on the first date!"

"Bastard!"

"Slut."

Zak flushed with a mixture of anger and amusement: part of him felt protective of Kara's virtue and was appalled at Lee's nastiness, but then Kara sure as hell didn't need his protection. That was one of the reasons he found her so insanely hot. The other part of him was chuckling as he remembered how Kara had seduced him with the grace of a natural born predator, in the darkened car park behind _Rolley's_, two days _before _their first date.

Seeing Kara's arm, still grasping the chinaware, draw back in anticipation her next missile, Zak decided to intervene.

"Whoa! What the frak, guys?!"

They both turned to see him at the same time. If Zak thought about it, it might have been worrying how quickly they both changed into different people when he was around.

***

Kara didn't like the fancy Caprica City restaurant with its sleek black marble bar and the throng of stylish, wealthy customers ordering salads she couldn't pronounce and 300 cubit bottles of champagne.

She did, however, love Carolanne Adama and, in honour of her birthday, had wriggled into a black calf- length dress and a pair of heels that were killing her after half an hour. Zak had stared in shocked silence when he entered the room they were sharing at Carolanne's sprawling lake-side house earlier to find her cursing as she applied actual eye make up and a spray of perfume. The staring had quickly been followed by him striding across the room and kissing her, so deeply and hotly that she almost didn't mind the stupid dress for one night. Almost.

The wine waiter poured a few inches of amber coloured liquid into a ridiculously tall stemmed glass in front of her and Kara caught Lee's eye across the table. The frakker was laughing at her, sensing her discomfort in these refined surroundings. Not out loud, of course, Lee was nothing if not impeccably mannered in a public forum, but she recognised the twitch at the corner of his mouth and the suppressed snicker in his eyes. They had been best friends and mocking each other too long for her not to notice. A fact he was well aware of.

Kara glared back at him and wasn't overly surprised when this made his smile widen further. She kicked his shin under the table, got satisfaction watching him wince and scowl, and smiled sweetly at Zak when he raised an inquiring eyebrow at her.

"Would you two cut it out for one night?" he murmured good naturedly, not in the least bit convinced by her performance.

"He started it," Kara objected, causing Zak to laugh and sling his arm around her shoulders.

"I was only going to say that I've never seen Kara drink anything apart from beer and spirits. This is very lady-like for her!" Lee teased, and Kara thought it was probably typical that Gianne chose that moment to return from the ladies room, slide into her seat next to Lee and take a delicate sip of the wine waiting for her.

"Mmmm, delicious," she commented, in that honeyed singsong tone of hers that Kara hated. Everything about Lee's girlfriend was feminine and caramel glazed, from the warm blonde hair and rose-pink lips to the round, small breasts and graceful walk. Gianne laughed like music on the wind and her eyes sparkled nearly as blue as Lee's. Not only did she look and dress like a film star, tonight's pale blue full-skirted dress and matching sandals being no exception, but, damn it, the girl was nice. Nice and funny and smart, too. Gianne didn't even have the courtesy to be too sickly nice, she could gossip and bitch like a regular human being.

To top it off, she was training at the prestigious Caprica City Arts Foundation as a freakin' classical dancer. _For fraks sake_, Kara often thought, _was it possible to create a girl better equipped to make every other woman feel ungainly and inadequate_?

Kara really would hate her if she weren't so likeable. Kara had to admit that Lee and Gianne made a great couple. Yes, they were both as irritatingly _great_ as each other.

***

"It really blows that I'll be starting at the Academy just as you and Lee are leaving," Zak complained.

"Well, Lee will be leaving, but I think we can do without him for a while. Of course, he'll be insufferable now that he's off to take War College by storm. It's probably best I don't go until next year, there's only room for so much ego in a classroom. That's why I need my own classroom."

Zak sat up and looked at her, confused.

"What do you mean?"

Kara laughed.

"I accepted a position on the teaching staff for next year."

A slow smirk broke across Zak's face.

"No way!"

"Yep. Just a junior position, which I could do on my head with one hand tied, only teaching basic flight. Y'know, to the lowly snivelling nuggets!" He tickled her hard.

"So you're gonna be my teacher?" he questioned, when she had kicked him away.

She dazzled him with a Starbuck grin.

"Only until you pass basic flight at mid-term. So you'd better stock up on apples. Or sexual favours."

"Well, I have a good supply of those." He leaned in and captured her mouth in that hot, sucking way that drove her crazy, even as his hand ghosted up the side of her ribcage and stroked the side of her breast. "So, we're really going to be together this year?" he murmured between mouthfuls of Kara.

"Um-hmmm," she breathed warmly.

Eventually they broke apart and Zak grasped Kara's flushed face with both hands. "I love you," she whispered, in a rare moment of sweetness that would carry him through until the next one came.

"I love you, too, babe," he told her. He drew back and smiled at his beautiful girlfriend, thinking of all the fun they would have at the Academy together. Even if he would have to suffer through her bossiness and ridicule. It would be worth it to see Starbuck in action, something he's only ever heard about from Lee. If flying had forged the foundations for Kara and Lee's friendship, Zak couldn't wait to get in the air with this woman.

"Sucks to be Lee this year," he murmured almost to himself, and missed the tiny flinch that Kara gave before she sighed softly, forehead against his.

_Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!_


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